Living Whole Food, Plant Based!
I was on the Facebook page for the Forks Over Knives community. If you haven’t joined the group, I highly recommend you do so. As you embark on this lifestyle journey, the page is full of motivating stories, moral support, and encouragement from the group …
I was so blessed to have grown up in Vermont. The Green Mountains and Lake Champlain were the perfect setting for outdoor activities. But as summer is relatively short, most of my memories are of fall and winter activities. What is Vermont if not maple …
On your whole food plant-based (WFPB) journey, you are going to experience many traps and pitfalls. Almost all of these will take place when you have a moment of weakness, when convenience trumps all else.
If you are like me, the day begins rushed. The dogs need to be walked. The kids need to be driven to school. The workday starts early with the first crisis meeting me once I open my emails. I need something quick and simple that doesn’t add to my morning stress.
Then, by the time dinner rolls around, I’m beat tired. Still, everyone expects dinner to be ready. If my family were to adopt my lifestyle, dinner would be so much easier. But that isn’t the case. My wife is on Keto and my step-kids never can agree on what they want for dinner. I should have been a chef because I swear I cook as if people were ordering off a menu each night…but that’s for another blog post.
After I have cooked for everyone else, I can finally turn my attention to my meal. Exhausted, it would be much easier for me to just eat what I’ve prepared for others. But I am not giving in to what is easy. I am committed to being disciplined in this lifestyle I’ve chosen for myself. That requires preparation!
There are a few things I do at the beginning of the week to make my life easier. It takes an hour or two of preparation, but it really helps in staying compliant to the WFPB lifestyle.
First, as much as I can, I will chop my veggies and store them in clear containers in the refrigerator. I cut the veggies in the size I tend to use them. I like having hummus with celery or cucumbers, so I make sure I have these sliced to the size I would use for scooping hummus. I enjoy chopped salads, so I’ll have a variety of veggies chopped for that purpose. Berries are washed and conveniently stored.
I will also make about three cups of brown rice at the beginning of the week, as I will black beans or whatever other dried beans are on sale at the market. Both are made in my Instant Pot (separately) while I am washing and chopping my vegetables and fruits.
Occasionally, I will make three or four small sweet potatoes in the Instant Pot and store those in a clear container as well, especially if I need a break from brown rice.
I truly believe that one of the keys to making this exercise effective is storing the items in clear containers at eye level! When you open the fridge, all these colorful, clean, and healthy options are staring you right in your face. At your finger tips are all the essentials for a salad, a soup (add some barley, vegetable broth, herbs, and heat until the barley is cooked), or a stir-fry with tofu.
Quick, easy, healthy meal prep in minutes. What could be easier?
For breakfast, overnight oats are perfect! Takes less than five minutes to prepare, stick them in the refrigerator overnight, and then in the morning, you can eat them at home or conveniently take them with you. Either way, the preparation at night sets you up for success in the morning. Here is how I do it…
The ingredients are simple and you can substitute different fruits, nuts, and non-dairy milks. That said, though I prefer eating steel cut oats, I have found they do not absorb the liquids overnight. For that reason, I highly recommend not deviating from using rolled oats.
Recipe for Overnight Oats
Ingredients:
½ cup of rolled oats
1 cup of unsweetened non-dairy milk (I prefer almond milk but rice, coconut, cashew, or soy works as well)
½ cup of blueberries (strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries are great as well…fresh or frozen)
¼ cup of nuts, unsalted and chopped if desired (I used raw pecans, but walnuts or almonds work well too)
1 banana sliced
1 Tablespoon of chia seeds (or flax seeds)
1 Tablespoon of pure maple syrup
Instructions:
In a clear jar (Mason or Ball brands work great), layer the ingredients starting with the oats and finishing with the non-dairy milk. Give the ingredients a quick shake after the lid has been sealed and then place in the refrigerator. Let them sit overnight (or up to three days). Add some additional non-dairy milk, if needed, before eating.
I enjoy the overnight oats cold, but I see no reason that they can’t be heated (just make sure you place them in a microwave safe container before heating or heat them in a saucepan).
Simple tricks in preparation will make this lifestyle so much easier and increase your likelihood of success.
If you have any tips or suggestions, I would love your feedback. Remember, we are in this together!
Wishing you the best of health…
Stephen
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Who am I and how did I get here?
Let’s see, where do I begin? It was Christmas 2017 and my Christmas gifts were all Keto related cookbooks. I was convinced Keto was my passage to a healthy life and washboard abs. It was the craze and may still be. But then a friend of mine expressed his concern.
This friend is very well read on diet, nutrition, and exercise. He warned me about the impact of Keto on my heart health. I was 52 with total cholesterol of 290 and blood pressure of 146/110. He asked me if I fully researched the impact of Keto on my heart health. Honestly, it was something I paid attention to, but when you are wanting to do something, you search for anything that supports what you want to hear.
The common theme I heard was that cholesterol numbers were misleading. Studies seemed to support that in defense of Keto. This was contrary to everything I had heard for years.
He suggested I watch Forks over Knives and What the Health on Netflix. Two documentaries that challenged the Standard American Diet (SAD) and offered a solution to obesity and chronic diseases. It was not pills and medication. It was not fat and protein from animals. It was a Whole Food Plant Based (WFPB) diet.
Vegan? Me? My skirt steak was legendary. My brisket had smoke rings that would remind you of counting the life of a freshly cut tree, not to mention the burnt ends. My Korean Spare Ribs could not be more tender. I was probably the last person you would expect to adopt a WFPB life.
But my friend’s concern and what I watched in the documentaries made more sense to me than the “science” behind Keto. I looked at it this way…this lifestyle would not hurt me and can only help. Before doing Keto, I decided to give this WFPB thing a try.
I had one last hoorah! Dinner at Texas de Brazil where the leg of lamb and garlic sirloin was consumed in quantities that should have caused a heart attack! I finished that meal and went cold turkey. This was February 19, 2018. I adopted a Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle.
My weight at that time was nearing 200 pounds. In fact, when the scale hit 200 I jumped off. So I will admit to 199 lbs. but not an ounce more.
I had a physical exam with my doctor in mid-March. He has tried to prescribe Crestor or some other cholesterol lowering medication for the last six years. I refused to fill the prescriptions that he called in to the pharmacist, convinced I could do it on my own with diet and exercise. My weight had dropped to about 188 at the time of the physical. But what shocked me after four weeks on the WFPB lifestyle were my cholesterol number (it had dropped to 211) and my blood pressure (118/80). Could this be a fluke?
Well my doctor feared it may have been a fluke and asked me to return in sixty days for another blood test. So, at the end of June I returned. After ninety days of a Whole Food Plant Based life, my cholesterol number was 171 and my blood pressure was 110/70. I was elated and felt so empowered and in control of my life and my health. As I neared my 53rd birthday, I was 162 pounds (a loss of at least 37 lbs.), felt much younger than I had in years, and told anybody who would listen to me that I found the Fountain of Youth! And I went on to live happily ever-after…
Ok, it didn’t quite work out that way.
My wife and I went to an all-inclusive in Mexico at the end of July and I indulged in what I paid for. All you can eat and drink…and if filet mignon was on the menu, I ordered it. Oxtail, seafood, eggs, bacon, steak, steak, and more steak. I’m not even mentioning the alcohol that was flowing (into my mouth).
Shortly after was a cruise with my step-kids. Eight days of excess. A cruise is essentially an excuse to eat yourself silly and I was delirious!
Returning home to college football season had me outside grilling skirt steak, ribs, and wings.
I had fallen back into my old routine. My weight crept up again, reaching 190 during the Christmas holiday. My skin was inflamed and my joints hurt. The energy levels I enjoyed for the five months while adhering to the WFPB lifestyle was gone, replaced with a lethargic and flabby being. I was embarrassed and ashamed of my lack of control and discipline. My health was taking a turn for the worse and I needed to take control and own my destiny.
I wanted to be the husband and father my wife, kids, and step-kids deserved. Healthy, vibrant, and not a burden physically or mentally. Plus, I had another very important reason. I will be a grandfather in 2019. I want to be out there throwing or kicking the ball with my grandchild(ren). I want to be rough-horsing with them in the ocean. I want to exemplify health and vibrance that defies my age.
On January 1, 2019 I rededicated and recommitted myself to the Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle. I have seen what it offers to my overall health and I want that for myself. And what better way to lead by example and hold myself accountable than starting a blog on the subject. Put myself out there for the world to see.
So here we are at the beginning of the new year. Two weeks in and so far, so good. Down 6 pounds, but weight isn’t everything. I’m sleeping better, feel my skin looks better, and my energy level is improving.
But I know every day presents new challenges. I will discuss my trials and tribulations, offer tips, share recipes, review products, and just be real with you. I’ll be honest and open with you. That is my promise to my community. At the end of the day, this blog is about you. You stay and read my posts not because of me, but because I am serving you by providing information and hope that will help you and your quest.
My commitment is to post twice a week, scheduled for Wednesday and Sunday. If there is a subject you would like me to address, please comment below. I will make every effort to respond to each comment and where I can, incorporate your questions into my blog.
I invite you to join me on this journey.
Wishing you the best of health!
Stephen